Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Application layer
Collective layer
Protocols:
GRAM, GridFTP,
GRIP, GRIS, GIIS
IP, DNS,
grid security infrastructure
Individual computer, condor pools,
file systems, archives, metadata
catalogs, networks, sensors, etc.
Resource services
Connectivity APIs
Fabric layer
FIGURE 12.1
Layered grid architecture.
a. The grid fabric layer provides the resources to which shared
access is mediated by grid protocols. These can be computational
resources, storage systems, catalogs, network resources, or even a
logical entity, such as a distributed file system, computer cluster, or
distributed computer pool. A well-known toolkit for the fabric layer
is the Globus Toolkit that provides local resource-specific opera-
tions on existing computing elements.
b. The connectivity layer includes the core protocols for communication
and authentication for internode communication. The key aspects
of these protocols include single sign-on, delegation, user-based
trust relationships, and integration with local security solutions.
One important protocol whose reference implementation is avail-
able in Globus is the public key-based GSI protocol (Grid Security
Infrastructure), which extends TLS (Transport Layer Security) to
address these issues.
c. The resource layer includes APIs and SDKs for secure negotiation,
monitoring, control, accounting, and payment for operations on
a single shared resource. An example protocol at this layer is the
GRAM (Grid Resource Access and Management) protocol used for
allocation, monitoring, and control of computational resources and
the GRIP (Grid Resource Information Protocol) and Grid FTP (File
Transfer Protocol), which are extensions of LDAP and FTP protocols.
d. The collective layer implements a variety of sharing behaviors with
directory services, brokering services, programming systems com-
munity accounting and authorization services, and even collabora-
tive services. One such service is the GIIS (Grid Information Index
Servers) that supports arbitrary views on resource subsets, which
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